Gods of the Sun (Dawn of Steam #2) by Jeffrey Cook (Review by Valerie – #NerdGirlVal)

***THIS BOOK WAS PROVIDED TO NERD GIRL IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW***

Synopsis

In 1816, Gregory Conan Watts’s chronicle of the adventures begun in Dawn of Steam: First Light continues – as does the Year Without a Summer. The crew of the airship Dame Fortuna travel to four continents and are embroiled in combat on three of them: conflict with New Spain in Britain’s American colonies, an ambush in Machu Picchu, and entanglement in the Maori Potato Wars in New Zealand. As they progress through darkened skies, Gregory gradually discovers that nothing at all was as he thought it was. All his assumptions are cast into doubt: what their orders are, which tales of foreign lands are true, and what parts of the social order as he knows it really are natural. Also in doubt is whether they will all survive the experience. Dawn of Steam: Gods of the Sun is an alternate-history, early-era Steampunk epistolary novel.

***Valerie- #NerdGirlVal’s Review***

I enjoyed Gods of the Sun much better than First Light. There was more excitement with them returning to New Orleans and Sir James being taken hostage. York fled and headed to Peru, City of Gold. The group followed and was way more welcomed than York. A rescue attempt didn’t work. York fled again and so did the group. They had to stop at New Zealand on the shores. York was no where in sight, but they knew he wasn’t far. The group befriended the Maori people just in time for the best fight so far. The details and action made this a read that I couldn’t put down. The rescue was great. but they did loose one of their own to murder.
Broken in sprit and ship alike, they headed to Australia to recover, heal and repair. Sir James was in real bad shape and they weren’t sure if he would make it. They burred their murdered comrade and loved one in the town they decided to stay in. While the healing process happened, some took to exploring the land, some to making allies in town, some to work on the ship and some for just some time alone. With no sign of York, life was as good as expected.
One day a letter just showed up on the ship. It wanted all of them to meet with this unknown person. It was a 2 hour trip to the unknown. Mean while the land was being explored and mapped showing a passage.
Mr. Franzini started his business and with his allies tried to take the ship. They knew he was trouble.
Miss Penn confessed why and who put them two on the ship. She was forgiven, but he was shipped of to sail into the wild blue yonder.
There was a lot of confessions and forgiveness amongst them all. Some right away, some took a little longer.
When all was healed and the ship fully repaired, the set out for their most important mission of all. They headed to Nepal and the most difficult exploring so far. Way more difficult then the wars they fought. But the success of this mission will prove that Mr. Bowe”s book is not fiction. Nepal could of had more action of some kind in it. After the rest of the book, it was a little bit of a let down. The story line, action and details of the war, Sir James capture by York and their mystery person, made this a very exciting read and I just wanted to keep going. I was shocked that ? was the mystery man. Never in a million years did I think it was going to be that person. I am looking forward to the next book and their trip to Japan.